2025-06-29
NEW: Colleges and universities renew Turnitin subscriptions year after year even though its flawed detectors are expensive and require students to let the company keep their papers forever. https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
Investigation: California colleges and universities continue to renew Turnitin subscriptions despite the cost, faulty anti-plagiarism tech, and privacy issues
Colleges and universities renew Turnitin subscriptions year after year even though its flawed detectors are expensive …
2024-01-18
NEW @ConsumerReports study offers a rare look into the scope of Meta's surveillance. It goes way beyond what most may expect—Meta can know many of the websites you visit and even what you're doing IRL. https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
A Consumer Reports study involving 709 volunteers: 186,892 companies had sent data about the volunteers to Facebook, or an average of 2,230 companies per person
A new study looks at who is sending information about your online activity to Facebook … By now most internet users know their online activity is constantly tracked.
2023-12-04
It watches you read. It watches you park your car. It watches you type. It watches your facial movements. What is it? Your college. READ: https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
How a California college uses data collection tools to track students' daily movements, like homework trackers, e-proctoring software, and license plate readers
2023-12-03
It watches you read. It watches you park your car. It watches you type. It watches your facial movements. What is it? Your college. READ: https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
How a California college uses data collection tools to track students' daily movements, like homework trackers, e-proctoring software, and license plate readers
A Markup examination of a typical college shows how students are subject to a vast and growing array of watchful tech … Threads: @craignewmark . Mastodon: @irisRichardson@mastodon....
2023-10-12
“Porch pirates” “Junkie” “Suspicious” We got an unprecedented look into Neighbors—the social platform linked to Amazon's Ring doorbell cameras—and how the company is sending users' posts to police. NEW by @lamthuyvo with @latimes: https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
A look at Ring's Neighbors app, which lets users report local activity and forwarded 13,053 posts to the LAPD over two years, some about non-criminal behavior
2023-06-09
In a rare look at just how deep (and weird) the rabbit hole of targeted advertising gets, we found 650,000 ways the digital ad industry labels you. And we've made it easy for you to explore the data: https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
A database on Microsoft's Xandr containing 650K+ “audience segments” shows how data brokers classify consumers by surveilling their online and offline activity
A spreadsheet on ad platform Xandr's website revealed a massive collection of “audience segments” …
There are ways you can prevent companies from tracking you (insert https://themarkup.org/...) and avoid ending up in these segments in the first place. Or, if you are already being profiled and curious about your results, there are a few things you can do: https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
A database on Microsoft's Xandr containing 650K+ “audience segments” shows how data brokers classify consumers by surveilling their online and offline activity
A spreadsheet on ad platform Xandr's website revealed a massive collection of “audience segments” …
2022-12-12
To uphold user privacy, expert @rcalo explained that Uber *should* push back on broad requests for data. But that when it comes to information on individuals in criminal investigations, delays can put drivers in harm's way. Read the full story w/ @verge: https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
Uber's slow response to law enforcement requests and a complex data request process leave drivers vulnerable to repeated attacks by riders using fake accounts
“I just feel sick over that poor man losing his life.” Brian Blagoue was carjacked at gunpoint while driving for Uber. Uber didn't give police information until three weeks later, after Elijah Newman was killed in the same spot while driving for Lyft. https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
Uber's slow response to law enforcement requests and a complex data request process leave drivers vulnerable to repeated attacks by riders using fake accounts
“Had they caught these people before, this guy wouldn't be a murderer and Elijah Newman would be alive.” Just weeks after riders carjacked Uber driver Brian Blagoue, a Lyft driver was killed in the exact same spot. This might have been prevented. https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
Uber's slow response to law enforcement requests and a complex data request process leave drivers vulnerable to repeated attacks by riders using fake accounts
2022-07-28
NEW: Your car is collecting huge amounts of data about you. @jonkeegan and @alfredwkng identified 37 companies in the growing, largely unregulated “connected vehicle data” industry that are trying to monetize that data. https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
A look at 37 companies within the connected vehicle data marketplace, a largely unregulated industry that some estimate will be worth $300B-$800B by 2030
A firehose of sensitive data from your vehicle is flowing to a group of companies you've probably never heard of Tweets: @funnymonkey , @themarkup , @jaycstanley , @nabihasyed , an...
2022-06-28
ICE has drastically expanded a program that requires immigrants awaiting court decisions to conduct regular check-ins via a mobile monitoring app. 230,000 people currently use it. What we know about the technology—and its privacy risks—with @documentedny: https://themarkup.org/...
Documented
Privacy advocates say the SmartLINK app, an alternative to ankle monitors, helped ICE increase the number of people it tracks from <6K to 230K+ in three years
and its privacy risks—with @documentedny: https://themarkup.org/... Kate Morrissey / @bgirledukate : I've seen asylum seekers be given phones from ICE that are only for this check ...
2022-06-16
Our latest with @reveal: The world's largest social media platform—Facebook— knows who's visiting the websites of hundreds of crisis pregnancy centers. https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
Investigation: 294+ US crisis pregnancy centers, which try to dissuade people from abortions, share website visitor info with Meta via Facebook's tracking pixel
The Markup :
2022-05-27
NEW: A tight-knit web of players are ensuring privacy advocates don't pass strong consumer protection laws. How? By passing tech-friendly laws first. https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
An investigation finds Apple, Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have launched a coordinated campaign in 31 states against data privacy legislation since 2021
Coordinated industry lobbying is overwhelming the scattered efforts of consumer groups and privacy-minded lawmakers
“To understand how websites handle children's data, @hrw used Blacklight, a real-time website privacy inspector.” Findings like these are exactly why we built this tool. We're glad it could contribute. https://twitter.com/...
Washington Post
Human Rights Watch finds 89% of 164 remote learning apps and sites used during the pandemic in 49 countries shared student data with marketers and data brokers
2022-05-02
For prospective college students, applying online for federal financial aid also meant sharing personal data with Facebook. https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
Study finds the US FAFSA application page shared users' info, including names, zip codes, and email addresses, with Meta via the company's tracking pixel
apparently including while doing something as private as applying for government financial aid. Read the full report from @suryamattu and @colinlecher today. https://themarkup.org/...
Practically all of us run the risk of getting caught up in Facebook's advertising machinery—apparently including while doing something as private as applying for government financial aid. Read the full report from @suryamattu and @colinlecher today. https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
Study finds the US FAFSA application page shared users' info, including names, zip codes, and email addresses, with Meta via the company's tracking pixel
apparently including while doing something as private as applying for government financial aid. Read the full report from @suryamattu and @colinlecher today. https://themarkup.org/...
“They are sloppy and they are not focused on doing their job in general on the issue of privacy,” said @leoniehaimson, co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy. https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
Study finds the US FAFSA application page shared users' info, including names, zip codes, and email addresses, with Meta via the company's tracking pixel
apparently including while doing something as private as applying for government financial aid. Read the full report from @suryamattu and @colinlecher today. https://themarkup.org/...
2022-01-28
Life360 was one of the multibillion-dollar location data industry's largest raw data sources. Now, it says it'll instead sell aggregated user data to one location data firm: Placer․ai. @alfredwkng and @jonkeegan break down the scope of this change. https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
Life360 will stop selling users' precise location data and sell aggregate data to two clients down from a dozen, after a report found it's a broker top source
The Markup :
2021-12-07
NEW: We've identified one of the largest suppliers of data to the location data industry—family safety app Life360. Life360 sells location data from its 33 million users to about a dozen data brokers, including X-Mode, Safegraph, and Cuebiq. https://themarkup.org/...
The Markup
Sources: Life360, a family safety app with 33M users, has sold users' precise location since 2016 and is one of the location data broker industry's top sources
family safety app Life360. Life360 sells location data from its 33 million users to about a dozen data brokers, including X-Mode, Safegraph, and Cuebiq. https://themarkup.org/... W...